The entire world spent last week
breathlessly awaiting updates about the unfortunate souls who faced four days
of extreme hardship on the stalled Carnival cruise ship. These vacation
tragedies occur more often than one might think. As a public service, CNN is
repeating its Peabody Award-winning coverage of a devastating vacation at a ski
lodge in 2005. For a harrowing holiday weekend, 17 people faced the limits of
human endurance when the power failed. In the first of three parts, we examine
how the odyssey began.
Sitting at her kitchen table, Diana Delgado sips coffee and
her eyes seek the middle distance as she remembers.
“People don’t understand sometimes,” she says. “They think
it was just an inconvenient weekend. “Sometimes I think the only people who can
relate are the people who were on that ski trip.”
The rain outside turns to sleet and Diana stares at it for
a second. You can almost feel her tense up. It’s a habit these days. Ever since
she spent a night listening to the howling winds and swirling snows, she’s been
especially vigilant against any hint of inclement winter weather.
She continued. “You know, you forge a bond with people when
you go through something like that together. In a way, I don’t think I’ll ever
be as close to anybody else as I am to them.”
Marty Delgado looks up at his wife and speaks for the first
time during the interview. “We went through hell together in that cabin. Hell,”
he emphasizes. “And you’ll never understand it unless you’ve been through it.”
His eyes return to the floor.
****
The Delgados, along with 15 other souls, certainly caught a
glimpse of hell last winter. Trapped in a ski lodge without electricity
overnight, their only food options prepackaged snacks and with one toilet
inoperable, what they endured may be unthinkable to those of us used to the
luxuries of the First World. This is a story of how much the human spirit will
endure before it breaks. This is a story of survival.
****
When Diana and Marty arrived at the Bon l’Hiver Lodge in
Vermont last President’s Day weekend, they were excited and happy to get away.
It was their seventh anniversary. That Saturday morning, they checked into the
king suite and observed their surroundings.
“The trees were already covered with the snowfall of the
previous night so everything was coated in white,” Marty remembers. “And it was
just starting to snow when we arrived. Everything was picture perfect.”
In an adjoining cabin, Jonas Thomson and his family watched
the flurries starting to fall. “David got so excited that he ran outside before
we could even unpack,” Thomson says with a chuckle about his then-7-year-old
son. Before long, the whole family had donned their brightly-colored gear and
hit the slopes. David and his siblings, Jenna and Chrissy, spend the afternoon
on the bunny slope, laughing and throwing snowballs. Mom Kate Thomson struck up
a conversation with Diana Delgado.
As dusk descended and the flurries increased to heavier
snow, the guests headed into the lodge for a stick-to-your ribs dinner of beef
stew and for the adults, a spiked hot chocolate or two. Everyone was satisfied
and in good cheer.
****
It was 8:23 when the power went out.
“I remember because I had just checked the grandfather
clock in the common area of the lodge,” says Kate Thomson. “We figured the
power would be back on soon. Little did we know.”
At first, the blackout was almost fun, says Diana Delgado.
The Bon l’Hiver staff placed candles and lanterns in every room and threw a few
more logs on the fireplaces. “I grabbed a good book and a blanket and cozied up
to Marty and read for awhile. It was actually kind of romantic.”
“We found Monopoly and played with the kids,” says Jonas
Thomson. “Then we got a little bored and wondered when the power was coming
back on. And it started to get a little chilly in our room.”
Around 10 p.m., the 17 guests got the bad news: The power
would not be coming back on that night.
“You have to understand that this wasn’t a simple power
failure,” says lodge manager Don Smythe. “In these old lodges, and Bon l’Hiver
has been around since 1927, it’s not always as simple as flipping the circuit
breaker. We needed some parts and just didn’t have them.”
The backup generator was of no help that night. Smythe says
it was also waiting for a part, which was to arrive Tuesday. One way or
another, none of the guests would be around to see it.
“And the snow that night wasn’t helping,” Smythe adds. The
forecast was for six to eight inches and he explains that the maintenance
service was unwilling to traverse the winding roads in such conditions to fix
the electricity. Salvation would have to wait until morning.
****
“I can still almost hear the wind swirling outside,” says Diana
Delgado, shivering at the memory.
“We just rounded up all the blankets we could find and we
and the kids tried to go to sleep,” says Jonas Thomson. “But Kate and I knew it
was futile. We knew we were in for a very long, very cold night.”
Tomorrow: The Bon l’Hiver Lodge food begins to spoil as the
snowbound guests face the end of canapés.
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